Friday, October 01, 2004

Teachers Hammered With Pay Cut Near Silicon Valley, California

Superintendent Rowley
A school district near Silicon Valley cuts teacher salaries 4.9% in an effort to reduce costs. "We desperately don't want to do this, but we must," said Dr. Stephen R. Rowley PhD, superintendent of the 9,300-student Fremont Union High School District. The district consists of five high schools.

Because of the salary cut, a top-paid teacher with a Master's Degree and 30 years of classroom service that was earning $82,000 will now make $4000 less this year. Beginning teachers will earn $41,200 if they have passed their fifth year of college classes.
Teachers are hoping that the taxpayers in their district will vote for a ballot measure that would charge property owners an additional $98 per year in order to avoid closing classrooms and laying-off teachers.

In a state that is notorious for having an extremely high amount of administrative overhead, your EdWonk is curious to know how many administrators have been threatened with layoffs.

This district, consisting of only five schools, has a bewildering array of supervisors. The complete (and somewhat Byzantine) list may be viewed here. There are at least four individuals with the name of superintendent attached to their job titles. Each one of them will earn an excess of $100,000 annually.

In addition to all this district-level administrative overhead, each school has its own bureaucratic apparatus.

With the downsizing of many California classroom teachers in the last few years, your EdWonk is insatiably curious to know how many educational bureaucrats have been downsized.